Julian Assange's defense is trying on Tuesday to persuade the British judiciary to grant the Wikileaks founder a final appeal against his extradition to the United States, where he faces charges over a massive document leak.
The hearing opened at the High Court in London in the absence of the 52-year-old Australian, who is “not feeling well”, said his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald.
As the hearing approached, his supporters warned of the risks to the health and even life of Julian Assange, who has been jailed in the United Kingdom for nearly five years in a case that has been cast as a symbol of a threat to press freedom.
The British judiciary will examine on Tuesday and Wednesday the refusal accepted by the British government in June 2022 to authorize Julian Assange to appeal against his extradition to the United States.
AFP
Julian Assange should not be extradited because he is the subject of “political” prosecution after exposing facts of “serious state crime,” Edward Fitzgerald has argued.
He was accused of “ordinary journalistic practices” that consisted of “obtaining and publishing information,” the lawyer argued. His client faces a disproportionate sentence in the United States and “there is a real risk that he will be blatantly denied justice,” he added.
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Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison. He is accused of publishing more than 700,000 confidential documents about US military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2010.
Among them was a video showing civilians, including two Portal journalists, being killed by fire from a US helicopter gunship in Iraq in July 2007.
AFP
These documents were obtained thanks to the American soldier Chelsea Manning. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a court-martial in August 2013 and released after seven years after Barack Obama commuted the sentence.
Ahead of the hearing on Tuesday morning, a crowd gathered outside the High Court in London chanting “Freedom for Julian Assange.”
“We don’t know what to expect, but you are here because the world is watching,” said Stella Assange, wife of the WikiLeaks founder. “Julian needs his freedom and we all need the truth.”
She told the BBC on Monday that she feared a quick extradition if Julian Assange was not given the last opportunity, but hoped the European Court of Human Rights could be called in in time to intervene.
The WikiLeaks founder was arrested by British police in 2019 after being held in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden as part of a rape investigation that was closed in 2019. He is currently incarcerated at Belmarsh maximum security prison in east London.
AFP
In January 2021, the British judiciary initially ruled in favor of the WikiLeaks founder. Judge Vanessa Baraitser declined to give the green light for extradition, citing the risk of suicide. But this decision was later reversed.
In order to reassure him about the treatment he was receiving, the United States assured him that he would not be imprisoned in the high-security ADX prison in Florence, Colorado, nicknamed “Alcatraz of the Rocky Mountains,” but would receive the necessary clinical and psychological care.
The Americans had also raised the possibility that he could apply to serve his sentence in Australia.
AFP
These guarantees convinced the British judiciary, but not Julian Assange's supporters.
In recent days, expressions of support for Julian Assange, who benefits from the support of numerous journalist organizations, have increased.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently said that Australians of all stripes agree that “enough is enough”.
In early February, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, independent expert Alice Jill Edwards, called on the British government to suspend the extradition process on behalf of its international human rights obligations: “Julian Assange has long suffered from periodic depressive disorders. He was considered suicidal.”